Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 04, 2008 at 13:51:46 user PeterC.
In Reply to: What happened to the Depression? posted by Adam Quinan on November 03, 2008 at 17:11:47:
Did the depression really not impact daily life so much or was Ransome glossing over real hardships that were affecting many people. I suspect the latter
Very likely so. Parents would, as far as they could, protect their children from those worries. I know that when I was young (in the 1950s), my parents hit rough times financially; the family had to move, raising money by selling their house in London and renting one in Switzerland, where my mum had a qualification that allowed her to teach. They also took in lodgers. It was definitely make do and mend time. Although we were jolly hard up for several years, they always protected us children from the anxiety they must have felt.
The Callum parents were academics and Commander Walker would have had a naval salary so they would have been protected from the full blast of the depression. The Blacketts might have been living on investment income which would have made them more vulnerable, but again the redecoration of Beckfoot would indicate that they weren't up against it.
However destructive and awful the depression might have been (and plenty of people had a dreadful time) in England at least, many professional people did relatively well. This is the time that car ownership began to be more widespread. There was still money about. But for working people, especially such as miners, it was really grim. I don't know how it affected Norfolk boat builders...
I suspect it would have been a different story if the Lake District had been in Germany, but I don't think the Communists were fighting the National Socialists in the streets of Kendal.